Google Exec Buys A Secret Robot Spy Plane -- The First Of Many*

Google took delivery of a near-silent mini-drone from a German company, which says it hopes to sell a fleet of the spy planes for taking Google Maps photos. Hopefully without using the optional thermal camera that sees through walls.

The CEO of Germany's Microdrones GmbH told Germany's Economy Week ("Wirtschaftswoche") that his company sent one of its models to Google HQ in Mountain View, California, and "we have a good chance of getting into lasting business with Google... the [drones] are well suited to provide more timely recording of [Google's] map service." Economy Week quoted "appalled" privacy activists, who said the drones operate in near silence (judge for yourself in the YouTube demo above) and can optionally be equipped with night-vision and thermal imaging cameras, making them even more invasive than Google Street View, in which photos are taken by van.

UPDATE 2: Jeff Jarvis (@jeffjarvis) says a Google executive bought one of the drones, not Google: Asked Google about report of buying camera drones. Google says the company did not buy it; a curious exec did.